My outside perspective is that there have been a relatively small number of developers who've been involved in API decisions thus far, so having an expanded window to incorporate feedback and changes from others might be a good thing (from a community development standpoint).
On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 3:48 PM Eric Erhardt <eric.erha...@microsoft.com.invalid> wrote: > > Eventually I think we should get to a place where we can consider the C# API > "stable". At that time, I don't think breaking API changes would be > acceptable. But I don't think we are there yet. > > Of course new public APIs are never considered breaking changes, so any > functionality that can be implemented with new APIs can be freely made. > > Truly breaking changes (ex. removing APIs, renaming APIs, changing > parameters/return types, etc) can still be done, but some caution should be > used. Breaking changes are hard to consume in .NET. Here is my thought > process around breaking changes: > > 1. Is it truly required that a break MUST be done? Or can the desired > functionality be achieved with a new API? > 2. Can the existing API still exist, but be marked Obsolete? > - This at least gives consumers a period of time where their code still > works, but produces a warning. And they can choose to switch to the new API. > 3. If it isn't feasible to make the change without breaking an API, we should > look at the impact of it. > - For example, is it frequently used? Does the new change give enough > value to justify the break? > > Note, these are just my opinions. I'd like to hear others' thoughts as well. > > Eric Erhardt > > -----Original Message----- > From: Adam Szmigin <adam.szmi...@xsco.net> > Sent: Monday, April 27, 2020 7:10 AM > To: dev@arrow.apache.org > Subject: [EXTERNAL] C# - Appetite for breaking changes to public API? > > Dear team, > > I am keen to work on a number of the tickets relating to the C# > implementation for Apache Arrow. > > Quite a few of the open tickets relate to making breaking changes to the > public API (e.g. ARROW-7757, ARROW-8581, likely ARROW-6603 as well). What is > the general appetite for making breaking changes to the C# code in its > present state? > > The README.md hints at the C# implementation being alpha-grade at present, so > I assume all ok, but I would like to check opinions from the devs before I > embark on any PRs. > > Many thanks, > > -- > Adam Szmigin >
